Sunday Morning Uni Watch

By Phil Hecken, on November 27th, 2016

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By Phil Hecken and the Sunday Morning Uni Watch Crew

You think teams would learn by now: You screw with your uniform during a rivalry game and bad things can (and often do happen). The Ohio State University almost learned that lesson the hard way yesterday, narrowly escaping Columbus with a hard-fought, double-overtime victory over arch-rival Michigan. The team tempted fate by ditching their classic gray hats and instead opting for black/gray helmets they recycled from their Nebraska game, when they wore 1916 fauxbacks. They won that game 62-3, so maybe they figured it was OK to tempt the uni gods.

Other teams learned the hard way you need to wear your school colors in your rivalry game, sadly. Both North Carolina (going BFBS against NC State) and Arizona State University (wearing a gray/bronze combo — neither of which are school colors — playing Arizona) fell to their rivals in their final regular season games on Friday.

Obviously, alternates and pinktober and camopander and throwbacks etc. are a part of the college football uni landscape, and have been for a decade or more. But there should be one *sacred* rule: when you play your biggest rival…wear your regular uniform. You’ve got 12 other games to screw around and play dress-up. At least save your best uniform for your biggest game. Maybe a few more losses in big games will drive that point home. THE Ohio State University almost learned a valuable lesson.

Now that I’ve sent you all off my lawn, I’m gonna turn it over to TJ and your…

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Sunday Morning Uni WatchBy Terry Duroncelet, Jr.

Is it just me, *or* did this week go by simultaneously slowly and quickly? Must be the holidays. Anyway… Rivalry Week. The week that –throughout its history– has single-handedly spawned more fights than between people arguing whether or not pineapple is a worthy choice for a pizza topping. The week where school spirit is at its peak for many. The week that has gives us our annual rites: Michigan/Ohio State, Alabama/Auburn, USC/Notre Dame, Grambling/Southern (although I’ll admit I mainly watch that game for the bands), and plenty more that we all know and love (or loathe in some cases). This week tends to wield an ample amount of memorable moments (like every team from yesterday seemingly treating their respective games like basketball shootouts with video game scores), and from a uni-action standpoint, this year seems to be decently fruitful.

From Tuesday:

• Pretty much every Eastern Michigan home game that involves a decently-vibrant road team looks like a colorized black and white photo. Most certainly the case with Central Michigan wearing their yellow alts (more pics here).

• I think this might be one of the gloomiest uniforms that Arizona State has worn, if not the gloomiest, ‘specially for a team called, you know, the SUN DEVILS.

• In the mist of Charlie Strong, some may have missed that Bevo (all 15 editions of him) turns 100 this year, and Texas wore a decal for the occasion.

From Saturday:

• In the 120th edition of the Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State, the Beavers channeled their opponent and dressed for the occasion (those are the Men of Roses helmets previously worn against Washington State). The Ducks were actually dressed pretty conservatively by their standards.

• Florida State wore decals with ‘MB 42′ on them in honor of Monk Bonasorte, the Seminoles’ Senior Associate Director of Athletics, who recently passed away after battling brain cancer. 42 was his number during his playing days with Florida State.

• The (other) Game. Fun fact about this game: not only is this the first time that Michigan has played against Ohio State while signed with Nike since 2007 (and their first road game with swooshie since 2006), this is also the first time since 1974 (someone fact-check in case I completely goofed on this) that the Wolverines played against the Buckeyes in mono-white. It would’ve been a mirror-image matchup from 42 years ago… if THE had decided to look normal, but nooooo. No, they just HAD to wear the cannonball helmets “just to see how it looks”. Well, congrats, your greys are having a bigger argument than the golds that plagued the Saints prior to 2012. Also, Michigan QB Wilton Speight had a hand warmer sewn onto his jersey, and if you look here, you can see the outside of it seems to use the same mesh that the abdomen of the jersey is made of. Nonetheless, it was a thriller to behold, as we saw the first overtime in the history of this matchup, one that would ultimately see the Buckeyes pull one out in a nail-biter.

And that will do it for Week 13! What do next week’s championship games have in store for us? Probably not much, but we’ll just have to see. See you next week.

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Thanks, TJ! OK, now on to the rest of your SMUW…

NCAA Uni Tracking

Uni Watch will again track the uniform combinations worn by the “Power 5” conferences. Most of the 2015 trackers are back, with one new tracker added:

We’ve got Rex Henry (tracking the ACC), Dennis Bolt (tracking the PAC-12), Kyle Acker (tracking the Big XII), and Ethan Dimitroff (now tracking the B1G AND the SEC). Rex, Dennis, and Kyle and are all returning from 2015, and Ethan is new to the NCAA Uni Tracking this season. Ethan has stepped into the dual role (thanks, man!) of both the B1G and the SEC after one of my previous trackers could no longer provide the B1G.

Following in the footsteps of the original “5 & 1,” Jim Vilk, and Catherine Ryan after him, Joe Ringham is back for 2016 to make his “5 & 1” (five good looking and one stinker) uni-vs-uni matchups. Sometimes he’ll have some “honorable mentions” and sometimes there will be more than one “bad” game. You may agree and you may disagree — these are, after all, just opinions and everyone has one. Feel free to let him know what you think in the comments section.

Here’s Joe:

. . .

Greetings, everyone! Rivalry Weekend has now come and gone, and it left us with some fine looking match-ups to look at. So, let’s go right to the list.

5) Oregon at Oregon State — The Ducks looked awesome in their green/white/green on the road for The Civil War, going with school colors instead of one of their seemingly infinite number of other color combos. This matched up excellently against the mono-black the Beavers went with at home in Corvallis.

4) Syracuse at Pittsburgh — The highest scoring game in regulation time in FBS history was an absolute beauty of a game, uni-wise. The Orange looked fantastic in orange/white/orange on the road, a combo they should always go with. Pittsburgh looked just as sharp at home in gold/navy/gold.

3) Kentucky at Louisville — Loved the bright contrast of this game. UK looked awesome in blue/white/blue on the road, probably their best looking road set. Paired up against the chrome red/red/white the Cardinals went with made for such a bright and bold contrast. It really did make the game pop and stand out as the two battled for the Governor’s Cup.

2) Florida at Florida State — A week after I put the Gators on the bad side of the list, they redeem themselves on their trip to Tallahassee. Loved the orange/white/orange they went with on the road, one they really should go with full-time. Add to that the usual gold/garnet/gold home set FSU went with, one that I think is always one of the best looking home uni’s in the college game, and you have one fine looking game.

1) Nebraska at Iowa — By far, the best looking game of the holiday weekend was Friday in Iowa City. Always have been a fan of Iowa’s home uniforms, as those who frequent this know. Pair it up against the Huskers classic white/white/red road set, and you can see why this was a sure-fire number 1.

Welcome to the 2016 Oregon Ducks Uni Tracker. This little project was originally begun way back in 2008-09 by Michael Princip, who retired after several seasons, whereupon the project was continued by Tim E. O’Brien. He, too, retired from the tracking, but the project has been ably kept up by the man who also tracks the Pac12, Dennis Bolt.

Here’s this week’s Uniform Combo for the Ducks (you can click to enlarge):

You can read about this uniform, and MUCH MORE, by checking out the Duck Tracker here!

This is the final weekend of the Duck Tracker (for 2016), as the Ducks season is now (mercifully) over and with a record of 4-8, even in this era of expanded bowl bids, the Webfoots will be home for the holidays.

I want to thank Dennis for continuing the Duck Tracking tradition here on Uni Watch. I haven’t decided whether it will return next year — in a way it’s superfluous with the PAC-12 Tracker (which Dennis also does) and with the Ducks now just one of several teams who wear different costumes each week. But we’ll cross that bridge next fall, when we come to it.

And that will do it for today. As always, big ups to and for the SMUW Crew — Paul thanked them for me on Thursday, but I want to again give props to a great set of dedicated guys: Terry “TJ” Duroncelet, Joe Ringham, Rex Henry, Kyle Acker, Dennis Bolt and Ethan Dimitroff. Great work again today, gents!

I’ll be back next Saturday (wow — it’ll be December then…2016 is. almost. over.) but until then you can …

“[Ohio State’s] black numbers by themselves wouldn’t be so bad, but the helmets, with the added black socks and undershirts, just really wreck the look. It’s BFBS without actually wearing a black jersey.”

29 comments to Sunday Morning Uni Watch

Dootie Bubble|
November 27, 2016 at 8:23 am |

I was at a Gator bball game last week in Orlando and Canyon Barry had some similar small numbers going on. Looks like Nike has a new “racer back” (at least that’s what they call them for the ladies) cut that dictates smaller numbers or else they’ll be really low or really narrow and long.

Yes Terry, The Men of Roses Beaver sticker was mostly black/gray/white with orange eye, but the Civil War gray helmet had their normal Beaver sticker.

BurghFan|
November 27, 2016 at 8:38 am |

The Brian Griese card made me look. I found this, which has the Broncos and QB correctly listed on the back. So the reason we never knew he was a receiver for the Jets is because he wasn’t.

Wade Heidt|
November 27, 2016 at 9:21 am |

-I like the Oregon Ducks uniform this week. That would be a good regular road uniform for them if they ever decide to give up the new uniform routine (or silliness) every week.

-Speaking of traditional college uniforms, I love the simple beauty of the Nebraska Cornhuskers classics. Regular striping. Red and white. Just a small capital “N” on the helmet, which is nothing fancy. It is one of the schools that have iconic college football uniforms I respect. We see too many costumes each week.

-Was surprised yesterday to see the shiny gold helmet worn by the Laval Rouge et Or in the Vanier Cup. It is an alternate helmet which I had not seen before. Usually, they wear a standard gold helmet with their logo on it.

-The Calgary Stampeders have worn an alternate black jersey each year since 1994. They are committed to keeping it. Unfortunately, their 3rd helmet they wear with the jersey these days is hideous. Guess they admire the Jacksonville Jaguars helmet, and then want to add extra clutter on top of that.

If they need to change the 3rd uniforms to get rid of the cross pistols – please get rid of this helmet at the same time.

Paul|
November 27, 2016 at 10:35 am |

The one nice thing about the Swooshtikas sucking this year (other than the actual sucking part), is that they seem to have toned down the silly costume shenanigans as the season went on. Thank goodness no bowl game, thus no more Duck Tracker this year. Can we end it permanently now?

THOM D.|
November 27, 2016 at 10:50 am |

NO ONE should like those German volleyball unis. THEY…ARE ….HIDEOUS.

MJ|
November 28, 2016 at 6:44 am |

Hideous…ly awesome! Sehr gut!

RickAZ|
November 27, 2016 at 10:53 am |

Rivalry games should be sacred and don’t screw with the uniforms. Ohio State has one of the great CFB uniforms and I couldn’t believe they played with the other lids. And I prefer the maize pants instead of the white for roadies for Michigan. The all time screw up for a rivalry game was when ucla wore all white, even though they and the Trojans had just gotten back the year before the tradition of both USC and ucla wearing their colors. The result was a Trojan victory, 50-0.
The only good time to have an alternate uniform for a rivalry game is when Notre Dame breaks out the green against USC. This was the original alternate, and was used very infrequently. One time they worn blue the first half, and then came out of the locker room after the halftime in their green.

DenverGregg|
November 27, 2016 at 10:55 am |

The black helmets worn in the buckerine/wolveye game seemed to make the fellows’ heads look especially big and round. Not a good look.

Josh Gibson|
November 27, 2016 at 10:59 am |

When are people going to stop saying wearing a certain uniform is what causes you to lose? Yes Ohio State almost learned their “lesson” by beating a team in 2OT that was truly probably the better team in the matchup.

Yes, the uniform didn’t cause them to (almost) lose – how about they just not wear it because it looked like crap? Does that work for you?

Sports fans are superstitious, in case you hadn’t noticed.

LarryB|
November 27, 2016 at 1:05 pm |

That was not a good look for Ohio State. Makes me wonder why the heck they did it. The jerseys are the best. Those helmets just didnt go right with the jerseys.

Arizona State in my opinion has the best multiple uni combos. Most any combo they wear I like. But the one they wore vs Arizona was bad.

So busy watching Ohio State and later Youngstown State, I did not look over Leos CFL installment in depth. I will do so today and enjoy it.

Fiesta|
November 27, 2016 at 11:21 am |

Thanks, Phil! I’m with you on the “For a rivalry game you wear the uni that most represents your team” bandwagon. I missed seeing the silver helmets filled with buckeye leaves.

arrScott|
November 27, 2016 at 12:03 pm |

Special-event uniforms for rivalry games strike me as borderline bad sportsmanship. For fans of both teams, the fact that the other team is the opponent is part of what makes the game a special event. They’re not rivals because anybody hates the opponent, they’re rivals because everybody loves to play that opponent. Dressing up in a costume that makes your team look less like itself robs fans of their connection to the game slightly. It’s a small bit of moral or spiritual theft, almost, sort of like hedging and saying, If your team wins, you won’t really have beaten the real rivals, just this other team in funny almost-but-not-quite costumes.

Then again, do most college football programs even have “regular” uniforms anymore? I’ve almost given up complaining about college teams failing to wear school colors, because the way they wear uniforms these days, I’m not sure there really are school colors in college football now.

Foust|
November 27, 2016 at 11:57 am |

Having been at the ASU/UA game, walking into the stadium and seeing ASU in a drab gray was a bit shocking. My dad and I both remarked how it was combination that could’ve easily been three other teams: Wazzu, Colorado, or Oregon.

Brian|
November 27, 2016 at 11:59 am |

The Batman shoes were indeed worn in a rugby match.

Tim|
November 27, 2016 at 12:19 pm |

And yes, that would be the official (a touch judge) wearing those kicks, watching a Scrum, the forefather of the set play in American Football.

The Baylor uniforms on the Big 12 tracker is incorrect. They swapped out the gray face masks for gold ones this week.

-DW|
November 27, 2016 at 5:17 pm |

Love those Orlando Solar Bears uniforms. Simple and to the point.

Terry Smith|
November 27, 2016 at 5:20 pm |

Oregon did NOT wear school colors in The Civil War game. Their official school green color is a much darker shade of green than the spring green worn on Saturday. It’s like saying grey is a school color of Iowa when the official color is black.

It pains me to see Ohio State mess with those iconic uniforms. Even more so when it’s done in arguably the biggest rivalry game in college sports. On another negative note; the “costumes” worn by Arizona State and Arizona just about sum up the problem that is the current trend in NCAA football uniforms.

Jakob Wolf|
November 27, 2016 at 9:30 pm |

I have declared the Calgary Stampeders to be the Arizona Cardinals of the CFL. Took a simple beautiful uniform and done killed it.

Flip|
November 28, 2016 at 12:44 am |

Syracuse should be ineligible for the 5 & 1 for as long as they sport that numeral font. (Unless it’s the 1)

Scott|
November 28, 2016 at 7:23 am |

RE – VT split color endzones. First time they’ve done it. (They have been mixing up the color all season, though)

I was at the game, looked good in person.

Chris|
November 29, 2016 at 1:14 am |

Typo – In the “Bevo turns 100” piece, the line reading “mist of Charlie Strong” should be corrected to “midst”.